Sunday, July 10, 2011

Two Africans held for smuggling diamonds

Two African nationals, including a woman, were arrested at the international airport here for trying to smuggle in diamonds worth Rs 92 lakh in their private parts, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials said today. They were arrested by DRI yesterday while coming out of the international airport.

A local court remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days. According to DRI sources, they had received a tip-off that two foreign nationals, would be landing in the city on Friday evening, carrying diamonds with them. Acting on this tip-off the DRI officials increased the surveillance at the airport and intercepted the two. "We found that this couple - Congo national Sow Bian Guena and Angolan national Maria Juana - were coming in a suspicious way. They had crossed the green channel of the airport and were about to leave the airport," DRI official said.

Accordingly, Sow and Maria were intercepted and were detained on Friday by the DRI sleuths. On questioning, Sow and Maria initially denied smuggling diamonds. However, Maria broke down, when the questioning became intense. "Maria told that Sow was carrying 1629.5 carats diamonds in his rectum, while she was carrying 1795.5 carats of diamond in her private parts," said the source adding that Maria only broke down when the DRI sleuths asked if they were carrying diamonds inside their bodies.

The DRI sleuths said that Sow and Maria were travelling from Rwanda to Mumbai.

"Maria told us that they were promised $1000 to deliver the diamonds to a person in the city," said DRI sources. They said that their biggest challenge would be to trace the person in the city, who was to receive the diamonds. Maria also told the officials that she did not know about the buyer. "Though Maria has given many details, Sow has not spoken anything till now," said the DRI source.